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4 - Measuring Public Support for the Rule of Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 July 2025

Amanda Driscoll
Affiliation:
Florida State University
Jay N. Krehbiel
Affiliation:
University at Buffalo, State University of New York
Michael J. Nelson
Affiliation:
Pennsylvania State University
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Summary

The public’s support for the rule of law is a key democratic value and a cornerstone concept in the study of public support for courts. We provide the most systematic analysis to date of its measurement, correlates, and stability. We validate an updated measure of the public’s support for the rule of law, drawing on original survey data. We demonstrate that support for the rule of law is highest among the most politically sophisticated and those with strong support for democratic values. Further, we draw upon thousands of survey responses in the United States and an original six-wave survey panel in Germany to demonstrate the temporal stability of the public’s support for the rule of law at both the aggregate and individual levels. Finally, we illustrate the predictive validity of our measure through the analysis of an original survey experiment.

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The Efficacy of Judicial Review
The Rule of Law and the Promise of Independent Courts
, pp. 99 - 135
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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